Police ask for more guns

Published 10:14 pm, Tuesday, January 15, 2013

More Information

The Stamford Police Department will hold a gun buyback from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Turn of River Fire Station, 268 Turn of River Road; another buy back will be held Jan. 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Chester Addison Community Center at 245 Selleck St.

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Staff Report

STAMFORD -- In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, the city's gun buy-back program is continuing forward Saturday via an anonymous corporate donor touched by the deaths of 20 school children in mid-December.

Many of the 32 guns police have purchased from residents over the past two buy-backs held in December were brought in by the families of owners who no longer needed them, Fontneau said.

"People realize that they don't want to leave these guns in their homes. Having those guns in the home for protection may be outweighed by the risk of having someone else steal them and use them in a crime," he said.

The program's purpose is to give anyone a safe and legal way to dispose of unwanted firearms and ammunition. The program was spurred by a deadly shooting on the East Side over the summer that left one dead and four wounded on Custer Street. That shooting sparked others that killed one man during a shoot out on the West Side.

Along with the Turn of River buy back from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at 268 Turn of River Road, the police department will hold another on Jan. 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Chester Addison Community Center at 245 Selleck St.

All firearms brought to the locations must be unloaded and transported in a vehicle's trunk. Ammunition should be carried in a container separate from the firearm. Anyone walking a gun to the events should place them in a bag or box and firearms considered junk will not be accepted.

Anyone besides businesses and gun dealers can qualify for the buy-back.

Fontneau said he hopes people keeping Sandy Hook in mind will bring more guns to the two January buy-backs.

"Thank you for turning in these weapons. They may have been sitting in your homes gathering dust, but a very high percentage of these weapons are the weapons that fall into the hands of our violent offenders. Please turn them in," Fontneau said.